Ujjain: A devotee was stabbed to death and his wife injured by a kiosk owner over a petty issue on Shri Mahakaleshwar Temple premises on Saturday night. On being informed, the police reached the crime scene and sent the two injured to a hospital where the husband was pronounced brought dead. The two accused Amit Trivedi and his father Rajaram have been arrested.
After postmortem, the family and kin blocked traffic on Sunday by placing the body on road and demanded capital punishment for the accused. As the deceased belonged to Panchal community, its members too joined the protest and demanded Rs 50 lakh as compensation.
According to reports, accused Amit Trivedi owns Madhav Photo Shop. On Saturday evening, Puja Panchal and her eight-year-old son Ansh went to the Amit shop. While she was talking to the owner, a photo frame kept on a table fell down after Ansh pushed it. Irked over it, Amit brutally thrashed Ansh.
Puja went back and narrated the incident to her husband Vishnu Panchal. He went to the shop to have a talk with Amit. Both sides indulged in heated argument. In a fit of rage, Amit threw chilli powder in Vishnu’s face and then stabbed him repeatedly with a knife. Puja tried to save Vishnu and suffered severe injuries in the process. As crowd swelled outside the shop, Amit managed to escape from the scene.
This is the second stabbing incident on temple premises in last few months. In the first incident, a boy, named Sanjay Lodhi, was stabbed to death during a clash between florists. Locals said that most of the shops on the temple premises were owned by anti-social elements. They claimed that the temple premises has turned into a hideout of such people.